Fastening means



March 2, 1943. J. F. DAUSTER FASTENING MEAN Filed Oct. 29, 1940 INVENTOR. JOHN E. DRUSTER {W2 9 fmzi ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 2, 1943 UN T FASTENING MEANS John F. Dauster, Wilkinsburg, Pa.., assignor to Mine Safety Appliances Company, Pittsburgh,

Application October 29, 1940, Serial No. 363,287

4 Claims. 01. 128-140) This invention relates to an improvement in a fastening means, and more particularly, to an assembly adaptable to connect a strap to a facepiece and operative to exert pressure against the facepiece to provide a sealing relation with a wearer.

It is among the objects of this invention to provide a fastener or buckle. assembly which is simple in construction, easily operated, inexpen sive to manufacture, can be readily mounted onto resilient material, is so arranged to provide ready replacement of the buckle portion of the fastener and is operative to exert pressure against the material underlying the fastener to make the im-- provement especially adaptable for use in connection with a faoepiece and its engagement with a wearer.

Other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention and which isillustrated in the drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a side view of the preferred embodiment and illustrates its application t a facepiece and its engagement with a head strap;

' Fig. 2 is a plan View of the embodiment illustrated in Fig. l; i

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a View illustrating the position of molding a support of the embodiment into facepiece material. Y

' While this invention is described and is especially applicable in connection with providing a fastener or buckle assembly for a facepiece or gas maslgit will be apparent that this application is not limited to this use. In order to attach a facepiece to a wearer, it is customary to provide head straps of flat pieces of leather or rubber material which are attached to the facepiece by means of a fastener or buckle. Obviously, these straps need not be of flat material although this shape is the most suitable for the purpose. This arrangement of head strap and fastener serves a two-fold purpose, that is, to properly hold or support the facepiece onto the wearer and to effectively and. readily seal the facepiece material to the wearer in order to exclude the atmosphere under conditions such as encountered during the breathing cycle. Usually these straps are several in number in order that the full periphery of the facepiece is adequately sealed to the wearer. Any fastening means suitable for attaching a strap to a facepiece must be relatively simple in operation and to which a strap can be easily and rapidly connected because of the conditions usually existing in the assembly of a facepiece by the wearer.

Referring to the drawing, a facepiece, the out-. line of which is shown, hasan extension or peripheral portion 1 made of suitable material such as a reinforced rubber materialand to this portion a fastener .I I] is connected. It is this portion which engages the wearer and affords the seal required. A feature of this invention is that the fastener when connected to one of the head straps 2 of the facepiece exerts a downward force against the underlying material of the peripheral portion l of the facepiece and this action presses the material against the head or face of the wearer. This downward pressure is exerted at seal or pressure points and by suitably reinforcing the material this pressure is distributed over'the intervening material between the points of contact and is effective in bringing the intervening 'material against the wearer and form a complete fluid tight joint around the facepiece. This sealing pressure is accomplished in thepreferred embodiment by a connector,.which may be inthe form of a rivet or pin 3 having enlarged head portions 3a, and which attaches or connects a buckle 4 to a'support 5. The buckle contains a frame 6 through which the strap 2 passes and it is engaged by a retainer 1 and in cooperation with the frame holds the strap in a fixed position. The support 5 for the buckle is preferably molded into the facepiece material. This support .5 is represented "as a frame shaped member and may be madeof any suitable metal or other rigid material and may be formed simply by a punching operation. It is necessary that this support be held by resilient material to provide some yield in allowing 'engagenientof the pin 3 and the underlying material or, if it is to be attached to rigid material, it must be resiliently or yieldably mounted onto the rigid material. The buckle 4 and its support 5 each have openings 4a and 5a, respectively, to accommodate the pin or connector tend the assembly of the parts is made after the molding operation is completed.

By the attachment of the strap 2 to the buckle and due to the shape of the head, the engaged end of the buckle is forced downwardly and a downward pressure is exerted by the connector or pin 3 against the material of the facepiece which it engages. This pressure, as heretofore described, provides a means to securely seal or attach the material to the wearer and insure against the infiltration of contaminated atmosphere.

A further feature of this invention is that the support 5 when molded in an upright position and preferably into a. boss 9 provided in the peripheral portion such as illustrated in Fig. 4

provides additional sealing pressure by the application of a strap to the assembly. By moving the support from the upright position to a position such as represented in Fig. 2, it provides a downward force or additional pressure against the wearer. For this purpose, it is preferred to use material of angular cross section as a square or rectangular section as the part embedded in the moldable material so thatit is adaptable to engage the molded and resilient material without being bonded thereto and thus oppose downward movement of the support or produce a force couple and this downward component of the couple presses the material or reinforces the action of the pin 3 to seal the material to the wearer. By this arrangement the molding. operation is facilitated since this position of the support does so that facepiece material underlies the fastener,

a buckle and a connector joining the buckle to the 7 support and having a base portion operative to terial and its withdrawal from the mold.

It is apparent that in mounting the support onto the facepiece it would be necessary that sufficien't material extend beyond the point of engagement in order that the pin or connectorwill engagematerial of the facepiece when the strap is engaged by the buckle. It may be necessary, as illustrated in Fig. 2, to provide a raised portion 8 of the material in order that the connector may press against the material when the strap is attached and drawn to the buckle assembly. However, the connector may be so arranged that it will extend sufliciently to engage the material when the buckle assembly is attached without providing a built-up portion. Should it be desired to have pressure exertedwhen the strap extends in a horizontal direction rather than in a downward position or in any direction above the horizontal thismay be accommodated by providing a suitable head or engageable portion on the pin or supplying a built-up portion 8 which will cause engagement when the buckle in this invention in connection with what I now consider to be the preferred embodiment, it is intended thatthe invention be restricted only by the scope of the appended claims. I claim:

i. A fastener for a facepiece comprising a sup port in resilient material ofthe facepiece and 4 bonded thereto and normally in an upright position and adaptable to be moved against the reg silient material to a horizontal position to exert;

piece material underlies the fastener, a buckle engage the facepiece when a head strap is con- .nected to the buckle and enforcethe engagement of the facepiece to the wearer.

3. A fastener for a facepiece comprising a buckle support in the form of a closed loop with one portion flat and of angular cross section and molded into resilient material of the facepiece whereby material of the facepiece abuts tightly the fiat sides of the support and resists its movement, a buckle means for receiving a head strap attached to the buckle support opposite to the portion molded into facepiece material, and the support being positioned normally in an upright position and resisted in movement by the resilient material in movement downwardly to an operative and wearing position whereby downward pressure is exerted on the resilient material in movement of the buckle support to a wearing position to provide sealing pressure of the facepiece material in engaging a wearer.

4. A fastener for a facepiece comprising a buckle support in the form of a closed loop with one portion flat and of angular cross section and molded into resilient material of the facepiece whereby material of the facepiece abuts tightly the flat sides of the support and resists its movement, the support being positioned normally in an upright position and resisted in movement by the resilient material in movement downwardly to an operative and wearing position whereby downward pressure is exerted on the resilient material in movement of the buckle support to a wearing position to provide sealing pressure of a the facepiece material in engaging a wearer, a

buckle to receive a headstrap and a connector attached to the buckle and to a portion of the buckle support opposite tothe portion embedded in the resilientmaterial and having an under portion operative to engage underlying facepiece 

